Posted on 06 August 2014

Elected officials and local farmers celebrated the protection of 33 acres of farmland in Water Mill on Tuesday. Photo by Mara Certic.

By Mara Certic

In one afternoon on the East End, you can visit rolling estates, beachfront shacks, or thousands of acres of working farms. Preserving that farmland has been no small feat, but thanks to the work of the Peconic Land Trust, Southampton Town has established a precedent that might make farming easier throughout the state.

The Southampton Town Board voted unanimously in May to impose additional developmental restrictions onto agricultural land that would ensure that it remained productive and affordable, and on Tuesday, local and state elected officials, farmers and conservationists gathered to celebrate this latest success.

“This is farmland preservation 2.0.,” said New York State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., at a Tuesday morning press conference in Water Mill, where officials gathered to celebrate the purchase of 33 acres from the estate of Charlotte Danilevsky. “And more than farmland preservation, this is farming preservation,” he said.

For the past few decades, as real estate prices have continued to rise, local farmers and conservationists have struggled to find ways to keep the farms working and in the hands of farmers.

In the 1970s, the town started buying the developmental rights on farmland, which prohibited future owners from building on the land. It did not, however, stop developers from turning the acreage into vast lawns or horse paddocks.

“We were preserving land, but that land was ending up being the front yard or the rear yard of an estate. Or ending up as a horse farm, or for horticulture,” Mr. Thiele continued.

The Peconic Land Trust purchased the Water Mill farmland, on Head of Pond Road, earlier this year for just over $12 million. According to John v.H. Halsey, president of the land trust, if the town had purchased the standard development rights for the parcel of land, it still would have cost a potential buyer approximately $120,000 an acre.

“It is abundantly clear, especially on the South Fork, where we have an overheated real estate market, that this farmland that has been protected can trade for between $100,000 to $200,000 an acre and that really puts it out of reach, particularly of our food production farmers,” Mr. Halsey said.

With the help of the Southampton Town Agricultural Advisory Committee, chaired by Southampton farmer John L. Halsey, the land trust was able to propose some additional restrictions on the land that were unanimously approved by the town board on May 27. The sale went through on July 10.

“This project represents a milestone in the evolution of the purchase of development rights program,” Mr. Halsey said on Tuesday. “And that is that the Town of Southampton has not only purchased standard development rights that have been in place for nearly 40 years, but has enhanced restrictions that will ensure that this farm, this 33 acres, will be available to farmers at its agricultural value—its true agricultural value.”

Mr. Halsey said the land trust would now solicit proposals from qualified farmers who are interested in purchasing the land. According to Mr. Halsey, the land will now be available at approximately $26,000 an acre. Restrictions will ensure that 80 percent of it be used for food production, that it cannot be used for equestrian use, and certain resale restrictions allow the land trust to lease the land out to farmers if it remains fallow for more than two years.

Tim Davis of Corcoran real estate agreed to reduce his commission by 50 percent on the sale, which allowed the land trust to compete in the sealed bid process to purchase the land, according to Mr. Halsey. “I am honored to have played a critical role in the process of the Peconic Land Trust acquiring the Danilevsky parcels,” Mr. Davis said in a press release issued on Tuesday.

“Our goal is to make sure each farm is producing food for the people of our state and our country,” said Senator Kenneth P. LaValle on Tuesday morning. Mr. Thiele announced during Tuesday’s press conference that he and the senator had been working on legislation that would provide additional property tax benefits to landowners with similar restrictions on their farms. Mr. Thiele also announced that they have been working to increase the exemption on estate taxes, which can often force farm owners to sell their land.

“One of the things I’ve learned as county executive is that there are so many Halseys around here, I run into them all the time,” Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone joked on Tuesday morning.

Tom Halsey, John L. Halsey’s brother, was also at the event on Tuesday with his son Adam and grandson, Eben. Tom Halsey was instrumental in the introduction of the purchase of development rights in the 1970s.

“Please, I urge everybody here to stand here and look there,” he said, pointing toward acres of open fields adjacent to the property. “And then imagine what it would be if we had not had 40 years of preservation.”

Posted on 30 July 2014

The Pike farm stand on Main Street in Sagaponack. Photo by Stephen J. Kotz.

By Mara Certic

The Peconic Land Trust has been dedicated to preserving the natural lands and working farms on the East End for over 30 years. As real estate prices continue to climb, the land trust has been exploring ways to impose restrictions that would keep local farmers farming.

John v.H. Halsey, president of the Peconic Land Trust, spoke about some of the methods to preserve farmland at this month’s meeting of the Bridgehampton Citizens Advisory Committee on Monday, July 28.

The most common way, the purchase of development rights, was pioneered nationwide by Suffolk County in 1970s. The practice has since been emulated throughout the nation.

“A simple explanation is this: when you own land, it comes with a bundle of rights. Zoning, of course, gives you the parameters of what you can do with it,” Mr. Halsey explained on Monday. “Probably the most valuable right associated with land is the right to build,” he said. The other rights, such as the right to farm or the right to walk on the land have less value in the marketplace.

“So the farmer would sell the most valuable rights associated with the land, but they would retain all the other rights with it,” he said. This became an opportunity for farmers to tap into the equity of their land and afford the estate tax on their land. It was also a way to ensure that farmland remained agricultural land and to prevent the over development of open space. Beginning in the early 1980s, East End towns began creating funds to purchase development rights and open space.

Another way of protecting agricultural land is through the subdivision process. The cluster provision, which came into use in the 1980s, typically “clusters” development in the least valuable portion of the property and requires that 50 to 65 percent of the rest of the land be preserved.

According to Mr. Halsey, both methods have been successful components of conservation through the years, but more needs to be done.

“As land value goes up, the federal estate tax becomes more of an issue. The value of real estate has continued to go up and today it’s higher than it’s ever been and it’s higher than anyone could have thought,” Mr. Halsey said.

“Non-farmers are not bound by the same economic reality,” he continued. Over the past 40 years, 12,000 acres of farmland has been protected in Suffolk County; several thousand of those acres are in the Town of Southampton.

However much of this land has been taken out of production, with much of it going top equestrian uses, which is defined as an agricultural use by New York State, he added.

Mr. Halsey was keen to say that he has no problem with horses, but stressed, “It is disturbing to me that that could end up being the only agricultural use that anyone has in the long run. I’m seeing the intent of these programs unraveling.”

“We need to do something and do it in a way that’s fair,” he added.

In 2010, the Peconic Land Trust purchased 7.6 acres of farmland from the Hopping family in Sagaponack for $6 million. It then sold the development rights to the county for $4.3 million. “We wanted to get this land into the hands of the Pikes,” Mr. Halsey said, noting that Jim Pike had farmed on the land when it was owned by the Hopping family but did not have the means to purchase it from them directly.

As a public charity, however, the Peconic Land Trust cannot sell something to someone at less than market value, and even without the developmental rights, the farmland was expensive for the Pikes.

So the trust borrowed restrictions that Massachusetts and Vermont have been using to protect farmland. It was then able to put in these additional restrictions, which “reduced the value of that farmland so non-famers weren’t interested,” he said.

Under the deal, the parties agreed to eliminate equestrian use and drastically limited the right of Mr. Pike to use the property for nursery stock. The trust has retained the right to lease the land to a farmer if it is taken out of production for two years. The trust also put on a restriction to ensure that it has the right to review the future sales of the farmland and that it must be sold to a qualified farmer. It sold the property to the Pikes for $167,200.

“Our goal has been to model these restrictions and try to get the town to consider incorporating them into the town purchasing policy,” Mr. Halsey told the CAC.

Three months ago, these additional restrictions were used by the trust to purchase 33 acres on Head of Pond Road in Water Mill. “We’re very pleased that the town board agreed unanimously to purchase the additional restrictions,” he said.

“We’re the first municipality in the State of New York to include these new restrictions and [the members of the board] deserve a lot of credit for that,” he said.”

The Peconic Land Trust will celebrate the latest acquisition on Tuesday, August 5, at 10 a.m. at the newly acquired land.

Summer is in full swing and there’s plenty to choose from to do on the East End this weekend. Here are some highlights:

The Grenning Gallery in Sag Harbor is hosting an opening reception for Ramiro’s Solo Show on Saturday, July 19, from 6 to 8 p.m.

“Ramiro solo show this year steps forward into a more mystical and hopeful realm,” owner Laura Grenning wrote in a press release.

“Anchoring the exhibit is a suite of four substantial figurative works, with each painting representing a season of the soul. Although well known for his expert likenesses in portraiture and grand figurative work, Ramiro’s distinguishing characteristic is, ironically, his ability to let go of the discreet reality of the eyes when necessary. With this, he infuses his narrative compositions with mystery that allows the paintings to endure the critical test of time,” added Ms. Grenning.

The Grenning Gallery is located at 17 Washington Street in Sag Harbor. For more information, call (631) 725-8469.

Water Mill’s Parrish Art Museumis hosting its second edition of Gesture Jam, an adult figure drawing class in which artists sketch live models in a high-energy environment, Friday, July 18 at 6 p.m.

Facilitated by local artist and educator Andrea Cote, this year’s Gesture Jam will be held outdoors on the museum’s terrace and include live musicians Nicolas Letman-Burtanovic on bass and Sean Sonderegger on saxaphone. Local dancers Adam and Gail Baranello are the models.

“Imagine going home with drawings that look like you’ve been to some sort of psychedelic cabaret, and feeling that way too. Andrea Cote’s Gesture Jam classes have just that effect,” Parrish Curator of Special Projects Andrea Grover said in a press release.

The Parrish Art Museum is located at 279 Montauk Highway in Water Mill. For more information, call (631) 283-2118.

Celebrities are coming to Bridgehampton for CMEE’s 6th Annual Family Fair on Saturday, July 19 from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The Children’s Museum of the East End‘s largest fundraiser, this year the fair will have a magical theme.

George Stephanopoulos, Dan Abrams, Jane Krakowski, Joy Behar, Julie Bowen, Molly Sims and Tiffani Thiessen (of Saved by the Bell fame) are some of the CMEE supporters expected to be in attendance.

CMEE is located at 376 Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike on the Bridgehampton side. For more information, call (631) 537-8250.

A painting by Georges Desarmes. Courtesy Christ Episcopal Church.

Christ Episcopal Church in Sag Harboris hosting its fourth Haitian Art & Handcraft Sale all weekend, July 18 to 20, to benefit the village of Chermaître in partnership with the Vassar Haiti Project.

An opening reception will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday and the sale will continue in the Upper Parish Hall on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Two hundred original paintings and a large assortment of unique and affordable gifts, including silk scarves, jewely and iron sculpture, will be on sale.

Many women in the village, Chermaître in northwestern Haiti, are struggling to start small businesses to support their families by selling the crafts they create and the coffee they grow. Proceeds from the church sale will go toward building a community center in the village to support those women.

For more information on the charity, call (970) 946-7614 or visit haitiproject.org. The Christ Episcopal Church is located at the corner of East Union and Hampton Street (Route 114) in Sag Harbor. For more information, call the church at (631) 725-0128.

The gallery at Sag Harbor’s Canio Books is hosting artists Ron Focarino and Jeanelle Myers, with her latest assemblage series, Plains Reverie, with an opening reception Friday, July 18 from 5 to 7 p.m.

“Myers work reflects the influence of her Nebraska roots, echoing the work of Wright Morris and Joseph Cornell,” the gallery said in a press release. “Myers incorporates a diverse array of found objects including old letters, metals, writing implements, fabric and many other materials into her compelling assemblages.”

Artist Ron Focarino will also be exhibiting, showing his “creature creations, delightful enamel sculptures of insects, including a dragonfly, crane fly, scarab and others,” according to Canio’s.

The exhibit runs July 11 through August 5 at Canio’s Books, 290 Main Street in Sag Harbor. For more information, call (631) 725-4926.

The Romany Kramoris Gallery in Sag Harbor presents the artwork of Anna De Mauro and Thomas Condon, with an opening reception Saturday, July 19 from 4:30 to 6 p.m.

Sculptor and painter Anna De Mauro is a figurative artist working from the live model.

“Her work process includes observation from life to record instinctual responses to the subject, passage of time and impressions of the metaphysical and the human condition,” the gallery said in a press release.

Thomas Condon lives part-time in East Hampton and focuses on the local landscape here on the East End, as well as the urban scenes of New York City.

The show runs July 17 through August 7 at the Romany Kramoris Gallery, 41 Main Street in Sag Harbor. For more information, call (631) 725-2499.

Posted on 16 July 2014

The Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, in partnership with the Ananda Wellness and Yoga Center in Southampton, will be hosting Yoga on the Terrace every Sunday at 11 a.m. through August.

Yoga on the Terrace is an hour-long restorative yoga session open to participants of all levels. Attendees will reach a quiet mental state as well as learn to breathe more efficiently, extend their range of motion and strengthen the body. The yoga sessions will also help enhance the experience of viewing works in the museum and the instructors will encourage participants to reflect on the creative process.

“Yoga is not merely an exercise for the physical body,” Mary Angela Buffo, owner of Ananda Yoga, said in a press release. “It is a philosophical practice that has the ability to relieve stress and create a quieter mind, allowing each of us to tap into our creative genius.”

Attendees can bring their own yoga mats or purchase them in the museum shop. Post-yoga breakfast items will be available for purchase in the Museum’s Golden Pear Café and participants are encouraged to view the works of art afterward.

The program is included with $10 museum admission and is free for members, children and students. Attendees can reserve a spot, but it is not required. A one-time free session is available online at www.parrishart.org or at the museum on Sundays.

For more information, call the Parrish at (631) 283-2118 or visit its website.

Touching art is generally frowned upon, but Bob Dylan encourages it. In his sculpture, “Untitled IV, 2012-2013,” welded iron objects, many of them vintage, are configured into a giant sculpture on the wall, complete with wrenches, wheels and a lever viewers are welcome to crank.

The singer-songwriter’s artwork was on display Thursday at the launch celebration of ArtHamptons, which opened with “Bob Dylan: The Drawn Blank Series” at Mark Borghi Fine Art in Bridgehampton.

The show was reflective of the weekend it previewed. It questioned what art is, with the musician’s paintings of naked women and city apartments next to crumpled up sculptures by John Chamberlain. It celebrated lesser known artists and multi-faceted, non-conforming talent, featuring a man well known for his music but relatively unknown for his artwork. And it brought in a crowd of local gallery owners, noted personalities and regulars on the East End’s art scene.

“Dylan’s work is a visual extension of his lyrical genius,” said Mike Pintauro, curatorial assistant at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill. “Esoteric and personal, energetic and slightly deranged.”

ArtHamptons, which takes place at NOVA’s Ark on Millstone Road in Bridgehampton, has been one of the East End’s largest fine art fairs for the past six summers and the seventh edition promises to be the most diverse yet, with art of varied mediums, styles and prices from across the world.

“It’s the largest selection ever,” founder and president Rick Friedman said on Monday, July 7.

Organized by Hamptons Expo Group, ArtHamptons will present more than 80 global art galleries, featuring 2,000 works from some 500 artists.

Although there is considerable international involvement, the fair remains dedicated first and foremost to the local creative talent abundant on the East End. The theme this year is “Escape,” reflective of the idyllic calm that can still be found in some corners of the East End—even in the summertime.

“There’s a lot of local galleries from the Hamptons showing a lot of local artists,” Mr. Friedman said. “We always have a touch of our relationship with the Hamptons art movement of the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s.”

“ArtHamptons is a celebration of the arts in the Hamptons,” said Mr. Friedman. “We’re celebrating that we have such an extraordinarily creative community.”

Local galleries such as RJD Gallery, Bridgehampton Fine Art, Tulla Booth Gallery, Monika Olko Gallery and Chase Edwards Gallery will have booths at the fair.

American representational painter Jane Freilicher, who has a home in Water Mill, and avant-garde theater artist Robert Wilson, founder of the Watermill Center, will be honored.

Galleries are coming to Water Mill this weekend from as close as Sag Harbor and as far away as Hiroshima; with 12 countries represented, the show is more international this year than ever in the past.

The Villa del Arte Gallery of Catalonia, which has spaces in Barcelona and Amsterdam, is bringing the work of Fernando Adam, Karenina Fabrizzi and Claudia Meyer, among others. In “Hybrid ML2” by Christiaan Lieverse, mixed media, cowhide and resin are combined on canvas to create a streaked gray woman’s face with sharp eyes that are hard to turn away from.

The French Art Gallery is bringing the work of esteemed French artists such as Nanan and Pierre-Francois Grimaldo from its gallery in Kensington, London, to the East End. Dedicated to exposing the vibrant street art scene in France, the gallery is also bringing innovative artists like Speedy Graphito, a pioneer of the French Street Art movement since the early 1980s.

Envie d’Art Galleries, located in Paris and London, will be on hand with a broad and diverse collection that aims to promote artists on an international scale, with exhibitions in cities like Brussels, Chicago, Milan and, Singapore and now Water Mill.

The 418 Art Gallery from Bucharest, Romania, 308 Arte Contemporaneo of La Habana, Cuba and Art Company MISOOLSIDAE from Seoul, South Korea, will also have booths at the fair.

Several galleries from Korea will be present, which “encourages viewers to experience a not so familiar world in a contemporary setting—opening up the culture to new interpretations while further contextualizing the artists’ ideas,” Mr. Friedman said in a press release.

ArtHamptons is Thursday, July 10, through Sunday, July 13, at the Sculpture Fields of NOVA’s Ark in Bridgehampton, located at 30 Millstone Road in Water Mill. For more information and a complete schedule of events, call (631) 283-5505 or visit arthamptons.com.

Posted on 18 June 2014

Tess Burstein, 6, was killed by a car driven by her neighbor Sunday afternoon while crossing the road by her family’s summer home in Water Mill.

By Tessa Raebeck

Six-year-old Tess Burstein was hit and killed by a car Sunday, June 15, while crossing Blank Lane in Water Mill.

According to the Southampton Town Police Department, at around 11:19 a.m. Tess was crossing the road when a Toyota Prius traveling north hit her. She was taken to Southampton Hospital and then to Stony Brook University Hospital, where she was treated for critical injuries.

On Monday, a spokesperson from Stony Brook University Hospital confirmed that the girl had died from her injuries at 4:49 p.m. Sunday.

The driver of the Toyota, Maurice Wittenberg, 76, and his wife Harriet, 76, who was also in the car, were not injured in the crash.

The car was impounded for a safety check and no criminal charges have been filed at this time.

Tess is the daughter of Josef Burstein, 46, and Annabel Vered, 43. She leaves behind a 9-year-old brother and 4-year-old sister.

Mr. Burstein is an investment banker with UBS and his wife, Ms. Vered, was an editor at Life&Style, Star and InTouch celebrity magazines before becoming the top editor at the celebrity weekly Closer last year.

The Bursteins split their time between their Blank Lane home and a residence in Manhattan. Mr. Wittenberg, a retired chemist, and his wife, a retired teacher, are their neighbors in Water Mill.

The Burstein family was having a barbecue in celebration of Father’s Day Sunday afternoon when Tess, who was playing in the front yard, ran out into the road to reach her friend on the other side, police said.

Detectives are asking anyone who may have more information or who may have witnessed the accident to call (631) 702-2230.

The tragedy comes a year after the death of 14-year-old Anna Mirabai Lytton last June in East Hampton. The Springs School student was hit and killed by a car driven by Maria Brennan, 73, while riding her bike near the CVS on Pantigo Road.

Posted on 10 June 2014

Financier Patisserie has opened a pop-up shop in Water Mill for the summer. The Financier Patisserie Pop-Up, located on 760 Montauk Highway, opened Memorial Day weekend and will be open through Labor Day weekend.

The patisserie will serve croissants, pastries, cookies and treats as well as a variety of freshly roasted coffee drinks. It will also be selling cakes by special order to be picked up the following weekend. Orders can be made in the Water Mill store, at any local Manhattan store, or by phone through the company’s Brooklyn catering department at 718-290-1011.

The Financier Patisserie will be open Thursdays through Sundays from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Posted on 02 June 2014

The garden of Margaret and R. Peter Sullivan is one of the homes featured on the Parrish Art Museum’s Landscape Pleasures garden tour this Sunday, June 8. Photo by Doug Young.

By Tessa Raebeck

Like a piece of artwork or a writer’s manuscript, a garden is never truly finished. As with all art, gardens can always evolve, changing with the seasons and naturally growing out of plans and designs, developing over time in a never-ending evolution.

Gardening is the art of the Earth, providing the willing and creative with another means of finding beauty in the mundane.

“All I know is, I don’t paint with a trowel or garden with a brush,” the late Robert Dash said in a video by P. Allen Smith Classics filmed in 2011, two years before his death, when asked about the connection between gardening and painting.

“They inform one another in ways that are very mysterious. It’s how the trowel is wielded or how the brush is wielded that informs the canvas or the Earth and there are no rules. And the only way you know how to do something in either of those arts is by doing it,” he added.

Mr. Dash, an artist, writer and gardener who died in September at age 82, “believed very much in gardens taking their time and developing over a period of time,” said Jack deLashmet, co-chair of Landscape Pleasures, which will honor Mr. Dash this year.

Hosted by the Parrish Art Museum, Landscape Pleasures includes three lectures by gardening and landscape design experts on Saturday, June 7, followed by a day of tours of some of Southampton’s most historic and remarkable gardens on Sunday, June 8.

The 2-acre Sagaponack garden of Mr. Dash, the Madoo Conservancy, which is open to the public, is included among the private estates on Sunday’s tour.

Established in 1967, the internationally known organic garden is a testament to Mr. Dash’s belief in the ever-evolving landscape. The grounds offer a tour across history, featuring Tudor, High Renaissance, early Greek, English, French and Asian influences.

Mr. Dash’s horticultural wisdom—and his commitment to the garden as a canvas that is ever changing and organic—will be celebrated and expanded on this weekend.

“We’ve always had excellent speakers,” said Mr. deLashmet of the annual garden tours, who believes this year’s Landscape Pleasures is the best yet. “The theme is the never finished garden, that gardens really evolve—and everybody will have a slight take on that,”

Following Mr. Callaway, Martin Filler, the architecture critic for The New York Review of Books, and renowned for his more than 1,000 articles, essays and books on modern architecture, will celebrate the contributions of Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, the Listerine fortune heiress who was a patron of the arts with a dedicated interest in gardening, landscape design and the history of gardens.

A friend and confidante of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Ms. Mellon redesigned the White House Rose Garden. She died in March at the age of 103.

One of the world’s premiere garden designers, Arne Maynard, is the final speaker Saturday. Known for his large country gardens in Great Britain, the United States and across Europe, Mr. Maynard has the special “ability to identify and draw out the essence of a place, something that gives his gardens a particular quality of harmony,” according to the Parrish website.

Continuing the celebration of the changing nature of gardens, the self-guided tour Sunday features properties with rich histories behind them.

The garden of Perri Peltz and Eric Ruttenberg, an 1892 property originally called “Claverack,” is rarely open to the public.

Although it has evolved, the owners are always mindful of their home’s deep history; the original outhouses, bucolic buildings housing poultry, dairy and the stables, were, in a move that is sadly rare on the East End, married together and allowed to remain.

Designer Tory Burch will open up her home, a 1929 red brick Georgian House and 10-acre garden known as Westerly that is one of Southampton’s grandest estates.

“A great story about both restoring and finding old plants,” according to Mr. deLashmet, Bernard and Joan Carl, the owners an 8-acre estate called “Little Orchard,” restored original plantings while also bringing in new gardens.

“We did not want to be beholden to the past just for the past’s sake,” Ms. Carl told the Parrish.

The garden of Margaret and R. Peter Sullivan is an American style garden flanked by a new Palladian villa. The landscape offers a modern interpretation on standard ideas of gardening, with fruits and vegetables, an herb garden, and a vase decorated with poetry made by Mr. Dash.

As the late Mr. Dash once said, “Gardening is very much like setting a table—and if you can set a good dinner table, you can be a good gardener.”

A two-day event, Landscape Pleasures begins Saturday, June 7, at 8:30 a.m. at the Parrish Art Museum, 279 Montauk Highway in Water Mill. For a full calendar and more information, call (631) 283-2118 or visit parrishart.org.

Posted on 27 May 2014

The Next Level Band will perform at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill Friday, June 6 from 6 to 8 p.m.

By Tessa Raebeck

As part of its ongoing Sounds of Summer series of live music on the outdoor terrace, the Parrish Art Museum presents the five-piece reggae and steel drum group The Next Level Band Friday, June 6, from 6 to 8 p.m.

The band is an eclectic group of American, Caribbean and European musicians, playing authentic reggae favorites and their own calypso-infused arrangements of classic songs. Tyrone Parris of Barbados is on the guitar and steel drums while his wife, La Dawn Parris, who has performed with Anita Baker and the Temptations, among others, sings.

“Our summer music program brings together performers of diverse musical persuasions and encourages all ages to dance, dine, socialize or just enjoy the fresh air,” said event organizers Andrea Grover, curator of special projects at the museum, and Amy Kirwin, visitor services and museum programs manager.

Guests are invited to bring lawn chairs and blankets to the show, which costs $10 or is free with museum admission. The Sounds of Summer series continues with Mambo Loco on July 4 and Edith and Bennett on August 1. For more information, visit parrishart.org.

The Parrish Art Museum’s second annual Sounds of Summer series will get off to a decidedly, if unseasonably, Mardi Gras theme when the HooDoo Loungers take to the stage on the museum’s covered terrace on Friday, May 23.

“It’s all New Orleans-inspired stuff. It’s all in that vein,” said bassist Joe Lauro, the co-founder of the nine-piece ensemble and a self-described aficionado of American roots music. “We started off doing covers, but now we do about half originals. It’s a stompin’ band.”

The concert, which takes place at 6 p.m., is the first in a series of five that have been scheduled over the next three months. Also appearing in the series will be the Next Level Band, which performs steel drum and reggae, on June 6; Mambo Loco, which performs Latin-inspired jazz, on July 4; Edith and Bennett, who perform old-time folk music, on August 1; and the Ebony Hillbillies, a bluegrass band whose performance will include a barbecue for attendees, on September 5.

The concerts are free with museum admission, which is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and free for children under 18 or students with an identification card.

“On Friday nights we are open late and we have this beautiful, west facing terrace …that can be used for live music, films, that sort of thing,” said Andrea Grover, the Parrish’s curator for special projects. “This program is really geared toward reveling. It’s the kind of music that is intended to get people up and dancing. Or, if you like, you can go out on the lawn with your kids and let them run around and jump up and down.”

Mr. Lauro is well known among Sag Harborites for the occasional music film series he hosts at Bay Street Theatre, using footage owned by his company, Historic Films, as well with his past, and still occasional, performances with the Lone Sharks, Gene Casey’s rhythm and blues-based band.

Besides Mr. Lauro, the Loungers’ lineup includes a pair of vocalists, Dawnette Darden and Marvin Joshua (who recently joined the band), David Dietch, on keyboards and accordion, Michael Schiano on guitar, Dave Giacone on drums and a three-member horn section made of Brian Sears on tenor and baritone sax, Ed Leone on trombone and Gary Henderson on trumpet that, Mr. Lauro said, handle the majority of the solos.

“Every band out there—all they have is guitars,” he said. “We said, ‘Let’s do something different!’”

Mr. Lauro said that Mr. Dietch handles the group’s arrangements and tries to keep fresh the classics the group plays as well as provide an authentic New Orleans feel to its original songs. “We write to the theme,” he said.

A documentary filmmaker who branched into the world of film archiving, amassing an incredible collection of vintage music footage, from Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker, through Elvis Presley, the Beatles and later rock groups, Mr. Lauro said he was bitten by the music bug at an early age.

“The Beatles,” he responded when asked his inspiration for taking up the bass. “But I had two lives as a kid. I also had this secret life of loving vaudeville singers like Al Jolson and Eddie Kantor. So I was listening to that and completely loving the Beatles and all the stuff that was coming up.”

Thanks to groups like the Beatles that covered ’50s R&B and rockabilly, Mr. Lauro said he learned about the likes of Carl Perkins, Fats Domino and Little Richard by working his way backward. “Eventually you learned that Paul McCartney could scream, but not like Little Richard.”

After moving east more than 30 years ago, Mr. Lauro hooked up with an old high school bandmate, Mr. Schiano, in the Moondogs. Later, he joined Mr. Casey’s Lone Sharks for several years.

He and Mr. Dietch formed the HooDoo Loungers about four years ago. “When I left the Lone Sharks, I wanted to do a New Orleans project. But I thought we’d be more of a show band, and do a whole retrospective show for corporate parties and that sort of thing. Pretty soon we started doing original stuff, but we still do lots and lots of old New Orleans stuff.”

Mr. Lauro said he hoped that some of the infectious joy that imbues the spirit of life in New Orleans comes through in the band’s playing.

“Partying isn’t something they do on Saturday night. They live that the whole year,” he said. “They celebrate joy through music. That kind of works for me.”

For more information about Sounds of Summer and other Parrish events, call 631-283-21118 or visit parrishart.org.

Jazz en Plein Air Series at the Parrish

The Parrish Art Museum will also once again hold its Jazz en Plein Air series, on the first Friday of each month from May through August.

The series starts on Friday, May 30, at 6 p.m. with an appearance by jazz drummer Eliot Zigmund, who has played behind the likes of Chet Baker and Bill Evans. The series continues with Nilson Matta on June 27, Iris Ornig on July 25, and an act to be announced for August 29.

Seating is limited and reserved for guests ordering food and beverages from the museum café. However, guests are encouraged to bring their own lawn chairs and blankets to enjoy the music from the terrace and lawn.